KCSIE 2026: what's changed, in plain English

Key dates and status

The Department for Education published KCSIE 2026 on gov.uk on 7 July 2026, and it came into force on 1 September 2026. It is statutory guidance: schools and colleges in England must have regard to it. That includes maintained schools, academies, free schools, independent schools, non-maintained special schools and further education colleges (gov.uk). For independent schools it applies through the Independent School Standards.

The full document runs to nearly 200 pages. The DfE's own summary of changes is Annex C (PDF). The sections below follow it.

The main changes from KCSIE 2025

Throughout the guidance

• Annex A withdrawn. The condensed version of Part one has gone, because all staff are expected to read Part one in full. The remaining annexes are renumbered: further information is now Annex A, the DSL role is Annex B, and the summary of changes is Annex C. The DfE has also published a short “Part one: overview for all staff” as a quick reference, but it doesn't replace reading Part one.
• Nudes and semi-nudes. A new explainer, and older terms (“sexting”, “youth produced sexual imagery”) are replaced with “making or sharing of nudes or semi-nudes”.
• Early help renamed. “Universal services and community-based early help” and “the targeted early help level of Family Help”, with an updated flowchart.
• Updated definitions of sexual abuse, sexual assault and assault by penetration, more references to misogyny, and “Child-on-child abuse” retitled to include harassment and violence.

Part one: information for all staff

• New and expanded content on modern slavery, financial exploitation, stalking and child-to-parent abuse.
• Child criminal and sexual exploitation can be committed by “an organised network or gang”, with a new footnote on county lines.
• Mental health and serious violence sections substantially updated.
• Trainee teachers referenced throughout, and a requirement to consider referral to the LADO.

Part two: the management of safeguarding

• Data protection updated for the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
• New sections on sport, school premises (including toilets), boarding and residential accommodation, young carers, children with medical conditions, and mobile phones.
• DSL cover: expectations for robust cover arrangements, for example a confidential shared mailbox.
• Online safety: updated definitions of the online risk categories, plus guidance and resources on generative AI.
• Filtering and monitoring: stronger wording on the annual review (details below).
• Information security redrafted for clarity.

Part three: safer recruitment

• The supervision exemption is gone. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 means volunteers who work with children frequently (“more than 3 days in a 30-day period or overnight”) are in regulated activity even when supervised. The volunteer section is rewritten and the old DBS flowchart removed.
• DBS certificates can be accepted “within 30 calendar days of the issue date”.
• Homestay guidance (formerly Annex D) moved into the main body.

Parts four and five

• Part four adds trainee teachers and clarifies responsibilities shared with third-party organisations.
• Part five is substantially rewritten. All incidents involving the sharing of nude or semi-nude images need a safeguarding response, whether consensual or not.

Online safety, AI and images

For anyone running a school's website or social media, this is the part of KCSIE 2026 that matters most. AI now appears throughout:

• The nudes and semi-nudes explainer says images “may also be digitally altered or wholly generated using artificial intelligence, including what are sometimes described as ‘deepfakes’ or ‘deep nudes’”.
• The online risk categories (paragraph 165) now include “harmful online interaction with other users or generative AI applications that simulate this” and “explicit images, including those generated using AI”.
• Child-on-child abuse includes “making or sharing of nudes and semi-nudes, including those generated using AI” (paragraph 193).
• Further information now lists Understanding and responding to AI-generated child sexual abuse material, from CEOP and the IWF.

What KCSIE doesn't say about pupil photos

KCSIE 2026 has no section on publishing photos of pupils on websites or social media. The closest it comes is listing “taking photographs of children on their mobile phone, contrary to school policy” as an example of a low-level concern (paragraph 509).

The specific advice came separately. In May 2026 the UK's Online Harms Early Warning Working Group, whose members include the NCA, the IWF and the NSPCC, told education settings to remove identifiable, face-on photos of pupils from public channels, after a school's photos were turned into AI abuse images and used for blackmail (UK Safer Internet Centre). Read our guide Can schools post photos of children? for what that advice and UK GDPR mean in practice.

Mobile phones

Paragraph 170 is new: “All schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default; anything other than this should be by exception only.” It points to the DfE's Mobile phones in schools guidance, under which pupils don't have access to their phones during lessons, between lessons, at break or at lunch. Headteachers decide how to achieve it.

Filtering and monitoring

Paragraph 173 tightens the wording on the review of filtering and monitoring. Schools should:

• carry out a review of effectiveness “at least once every academic year”
• have it led by the SLT member responsible for filtering and monitoring, supported by the DSL and IT support
• check filtering works “on all internet-connected devices in all relevant locations”
• keep a record of the checks

Induction training for all staff must include online safety, including the expectations, roles and responsibilities around filtering and monitoring, with updates at least annually.

Who needs to read what

A September checklist

1. Confirm every member of staff has read Part one in full, and record it.
2. Update your child protection policy, staff behaviour policy and online safety policy to the 2026 wording.
3. Review DSL cover, for example a shared confidential mailbox for concerns.
4. Schedule this year's filtering and monitoring review and decide where the record is kept.
5. Check your mobile phone policy against paragraph 170.
6. Re-check volunteers against the new regulated activity rules and DBS requirements.
7. Audit the pupil photos on your website and social media against the May 2026 image guidance, and refresh photo consent forms.

This guide summarises the DfE's published guidance and isn't legal advice. Always check the current version on gov.uk.